Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said construction of drought mitigation projects in Rayalaseema region should begin on October 1 and high priority be given to the ‘Nadu-Nedu’ scheme in the education and health sectors.
Mr. Jagan also wanted importance given to harnessing the flood waters from Polavaram and completion of the Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi project.
Taking stock of the mobilisation of funds for ‘Nadu-Nedu,’ water grid and irrigation and infrastructure projects at a high-level meeting at his camp office, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to expedite works under Nadu-Nedu in schools and colleges and in hospitals to solve the problems created by the dearth of proper amenities.
Emphasis needed to be laid on the establishment of 16 new medical colleges, a super-speciality hospital, a hospital for mental care and a cancer care centre. These projects require about ₹6,700 crore.
Funds requirement
Officials told the CM that the irrigation projects were estimated to cost ₹98,000 crore, of which ₹72,000 crore was required for the new ones.
The officials of the Roads and Buildings Department said that 70% of works on road connectivity projects were completed at a cost of ₹4,456 crore with funding by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Nadu-Nedu was taken up in over 15,000 schools in the first phase at a cost of ₹3,600 crore, of which a sum of ₹920 crore was released.
Ministers Buggana Rajendranath Reddy and Audimulapu Suresh , Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and other top officials were present.
